Public Interest in UFOs Growing
Article by Blake Bacho February 1, 2021 (monroenews.com)
• Public interest in extraterrestrial life is at an all-time high, thanks in part to some recent developments at the federal government level. In August, the Pentagon formed a UAP Task Force dedicated to investigating UFOs observed by US military aircraft. And the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief bill signed in December contained a stipulation requiring US intelligence agencies to disclose any and all information they have regarding UFOs to Congress within the next six months.
• The Michigan Mutual UFO Network (MIMUFON), a nonprofit organization that records and investigates UFO sightings, reported 233 sightings across Michigan in 2020. MIMUFON Director Bill Konkolesky said his organization averages around 160 reports a year. He attributed the higher number of reports for 2020 to not only the Starlink satellites, but the fact that the pandemic kept people at home leaving them with more time on their hands to look up in the sky.
• The high number of UFO reports may be attributed to misidentified Starlink satellites. “They’ve (the satellites) been sort of the bane of our existence since late 2019, because everybody has reported them as flying saucers…” says Konkolesky. “It’s a chain of satellites, they are in a formation in a single line… It’s a cool idea, but they look really eerie and people report them as UFOs.”
• Two cases that weren’t reported to MIMUFON are nevertheless intriguing, and are “worthy of investigation” says Konkolesky. On January 24th, Kristy Mariano was in her Detroit Beach, Michigan home late at night when outside of her window she happened to notice her neighbors outside gawking up at the sky. When she went into the backyard, she looked up and saw three huge lights in the sky, dancing around. “It was really strange,” said Mariano. “I was thinking it’s not an airplane, and it wasn’t a drone either because it was really, really low, and when it was passing by the clouds kept moving and moving and the stars were so bright…”. The lights disappeared after exactly 45 minutes. “It was so crazy,” she said. “I never believed in this kind of stuff before, but now I kind of do.”
• In October 2020, Monroe, Michigan resident Carl Walcz was taking photos of the Moon. But when he later looked at the photos, he noticed that in one of the photos there appeared a bluish-green object floating in the sky. “I never did see it when I was taking a picture of it,” Walcz said. “For all I know it could be something (that got stuck on) the camera or anything… But it’s too well-defined to be, and none of my other pictures that I took (had it). I took like two pictures right in a row of that same shot, and in one of them it was there and the other one it wasn’t.”
• Those dedicated to proving that we are not alone in the universe say it’s getting much more difficult to separate examples of truly inexplicable phenomena from the more common cases of mistaken identity. “One thing I often say is that if the Moon disappeared for a month, how many people would notice?” quipped Konkolesky. “I just don’t think people are looking up.”
Kristy Mariano was inside her Detroit Beach home late last Sunday night when she happened to notice something peculiar outside of her window. Many of her neighbors were outside gawking up at the sky.
Taking her dog with her, Mariano went into her backyard to see what all the fuss was about. When she looked up, she couldn’t believe what she saw.
“I see three big, like huge lights in the sky, and they’re dancing around,” she said. “It was really strange. I was thinking it’s not an airplane, and it wasn’t a drone either because it was really, really low, and when it was passing by the clouds kept moving and moving and the stars were so bright…
Mariano said the lights disappeared after exactly 45 minutes.
“It was so crazy,” she said. “I never believed in this kind of stuff before, but now I kind of do.”
Like Mariano, Monroe native Carl Walcz wasn’t really a believer in flying saucers or little green men. But one night this past October while he was taking photos of the moon, he stumbled across something he just could not explain: in just one of his pictures, there appeared a bluish-green object floating in the sky.
“I never did see it when I was taking a picture of it,” Walcz said. “For all I know it could be something (that got stuck on) the camera or anything… But it’s too well-defined to be, and none of my other pictures that I took (had it). I took like two pictures right in a row of that same shot, and in one of them it was there and the other one it wasn’t.”
Mariano and Walcz are certainly not the first people who have ever claimed to see Unidentified Flying Objects, and they certainly won’t be the last. But those who are dedicated to proving that we are not alone in the universe say it’s getting much more difficult to separate examples of truly inexplicable phenomena from the more common cases of mistaken identity.
The Michigan Mutual UFO Network (MIMUFON), a nonprofit organization that records and investigates UFO sightings, reported 233 sightings across Michigan in 2020 – only two of which were located in Monroe County. Both of those cases have been identified, meaning that MIMUFON investigators determined a known explanation for the sightings.
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